Approval for 20 apartments riles Northboro

NORTHBORO — A decision by the Zoning Board of Appeals to allow a 20-unit apartment project even though town meeting limited the number of units on any lot to eight has left some residents and Planning Board members upset.

The ZBA approved special permits and variances Tuesday night for a mixed-use development at 61 and 65 W. Main St. that includes an 8,800-square-foot retail building and a 22,000-square-foot two-story building with retail use on the first floor and 20 apartments on the second floor. The development, called Northboro Commons, is at the long-vacant former Pierce gas station on Route 20, across from Dunkin' Donuts.

Town meeting in April overwhelmingly approved a zoning bylaw limiting the number of apartment units on a lot to eight. Tuesday night, the ZBA voted 4-1 to grant a variance to allow 20 units with the condition that each unit would have only one bedroom.

Ms. Gillespie, reached by phone, said that while the Planning Board is not the permitting authority for the project, members asked the applicants, James Vogel of Northboro and his lawyer and partner, Paul Ayoub, several times to reduce the number of apartments to come into compliance or at least to 10 or 12, but they refused.

She said the Planning Board members sent a letter to the ZBA reminding it about the town meeting votes and that residents did not want a large apartment complex downtown.

"In the end, the ZBA did not care, didn't even try to negotiate the number of units and voted it in. What a shame for downtown Northboro," Ms. Gillespie wrote on Facebook, initiating the discussion. "One final note — Thank you Rob Berger, the only ZBA member who opposed the 20 apartments and doing the right thing!"

Ms. Bakstran responded: "Michelle, Shame on you … for your negative slant on a meeting that you did not even attend!"

Ms. Bakstran did not readily return a telephone call and an email from a reporter seeking a comment.

Mr. Burger said Wednesday night, "Based on the citizens' votes at previous town meetings, I felt this residential volume of units didn't meet what the people of Northboro would want for downtown."

Amy Poretsky, who lives on Indian Meadow Drive, said she attended the meeting and was disappointed by the outcome. She said the entire 52,800-square-foot project and the 20 apartments are not in keeping with the character of the town.

"A lot of people were disappointed. I just felt the ZBA didn't follow the will of the people. It's another strip mall. Route 20 is going to look like Route 9," Ms. Poretsky said when reached by phone.

Before 2009, when zoning bylaws were revised, multifamily developments were not allowed in the downtown. Two years ago, the ZBA approved a proposed development at 130 Main St. that has 12 apartment units. Some residents have appealed that decision to Worcester Superior Court. A trial is scheduled for February.

That in part led to the April 2013 town meeting vote at which members overwhelmingly approved a warrant article limiting the number of apartment units on a site to eight.